Fergie's Tech Blog

Survey: Rural Broadband Users Closing Gap

An AP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The use of high-speed Internet services is growing fast in rural America, partly closing the gap between country and city, a survey shows.

Last fall, 24 percent of rural Americans had broadband Internet access at home, more than double the 9 percent rate reported in 2003, according to a survey released Sunday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

By comparison, 39 percent of urban and suburban dwellers had broadband last fall, up from 22 percent in 2003.

The main reason for lower rural broadband adoption appears to be availability, the study said. But Pew also noted that country dwellers are on average older, less educated and poorer than urbanites and suburbanites, factors that are associated with lower levels of Internet use.

posted by Fergie @ 2/26/2006 01:54:00 PM